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World 94 - Incredible India

Shirley Round Table are one of the World94 clubs.

 

This year's meeting was held in Chennai, India.

 

The meeting was preceded by a 10 day fellowship tour of South India

 

Enormous thanks to the members of MCRT 94 for their organisation of the whole event.

 

 

My impressions of India by Gary Phipps.

15 from Shirley went to the World 94 meeting in India this February.

Eight of us stayed for the extended North India tour.

In 18 days we travelled on 6 planes, 3 trains, several coaches (one journey reminded me of the Italian Job!), tuk-tuks, rickshaws, elephants and camels.
We visited 5 states.
We saw a gazzilion temples
We met over 100 men and women from 8 other countries and became firm friends with many of them (even the French!)
We met 2 RTI Area Chairmen and an Area V-C
We met the National President of RTI
We stayed in 8 5-star hotels, slept in a sleeper car (some of us had much less sleep than others!) and were home hosted (some in utter opulence)

We were treated like kings, never allowed to carry our own bags or have to fetch our own beers.
We celebrated 3 British birthdays
We had Delhi Belly
We saw poverty and beggars.
We were offered trinkets and ornaments from hawkers at "special low prices" at every stop
We drank from fresh coconuts
We swam in two oceans
We explored jungle and desert
We saw monkeys and elephants in the wild (and big spiders!)
We saw street cows and street dogs
We drank lots of Kingfisher beer

We learnt lots

We learnt that Chennai table have built 13 schools and a hospital
We learnt that there are lots of people in India
We learnt that the rules of the road are very flexible!
We learnt that bamboo can be used for scaffolding
We learnt that there *IS* such as thing as too many curries
We learnt that Indian people are very friendly and welcoming

We were
adopted by our hosts
We learnt to
adapt
We all felt
improved

We now have lots of new friends in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden and of course India!

We thank the members of MCRT 94, and all who put the tour of India together.

 

Click a picture to see the full size version, and then move through the gallery with NEXT and PREV options to left and right of the picture

 

1. Hosted by Vijay and his family

2.Drink anyone?

3. 1st night in India

4. Beers were a plenty!

5. At the Madras Club

6. James enjoying the facilities

7. Sleeper train - the Madurai express

8. Bunks

9. Good night

10. At the temples, sheltering from the Sun

11. Receiving a blessing from an elephant

12. snap!

13. Lemons or Limes?

14. Pasta in India

15. James with a Bindi

16. Drinking from fresh coconuts 17 Ready for a hike through the jungle 18 A real live wild elephant!

20. a BIG spider (about 12" diameter!)

21. Having a bath...

22. Hunks!

23. Eating off banana leaves 24. An elephant ride 25. Working elephant

26. The Zuri Resort in Kerala.

27 Champagne Sir?

28 On the backwaters

29 Having a tow

30. A house boat 31. A village in the backwaters

32. Alan, Gary and James prepare to canoe

33. Tight tee-shirts!

34. We finished!

35. walking through the village. 36. It was a long day! 37. The view from Alan's terrace

38.An outdoor shower

39. A midnight dip

40. The villas

41. Triple lift 42. Splash! 43. Paradise

44. Chairman Alan with Chairman of Cochin table

45. "Nauzer!"

46. Gulp!

47. Yak! 48. Just good friends 49. Ladies at the Cochin Yacht club

50. Colourful lorries

51. A tiring coach trip

52. Many nations at the Chinese fishing nets

53. Ask me why I have the baboon 54. It wasn't really! 55. Bamboo scaffold

56. Tuk-tuks waiting for us at the start of the Treasure Hunt

57. Tasked to cut a local's hair

58. Walk the cow

59. Ask a local about the cinema 60. Calling the local cinema 61. Hold tight!

62. Five in the back...

63. ...and two in the front!

64. ..on a rickshaw

65. At the end of the Treasure Hunt

66. The "South African" team (with four British ladies)

67. Greg, Sivi and Alan

68. The Shorts eating off banana leaves

69. Barry

70. 80's style!

71.Visti and Sanne.

72. James, Alan and Nauzer

73. Ahhh

74. Ahhh

75. Girls from Denmark and Germany

76. Girls from Belgium and the Nederlands

77. Vijay 78. Flick and Sylvain 79. Breakfast - including a 'paper dosa'

80. The hospital built by MCRT Table 94

81. Jean-Paul and Valerie

82. MCRT proudly outside the hospital

83.  Sightseeing near the GRT 84.A big rock! 85. ...meanwhile...

86. The pool at the GRT

87. In the Sea

88. Ready for the beach

89. Henna tattoos

90. In progress 91. All the ladies had them

92. ...

93. ...

94.  Outdoor disco

95.  James drinking his Fine! 96. ...and Alan... 97. ...and Sharon...

98. Pretty!!

99. A snake

100. The Business Meeting

101. Presenting a gift.. can you guess what it is? 102.  yes -  a cricket bat! 103. Dr. Death and gang

104. One of the 'fines' doled out

105. Fine!

106. A tarrot reading parrot

107. The games 108. Get the ping-pong ball in the cups 109.  We WON!

110. The next game....

111. Smash the pot.  Don't ask if we won.

112. GRT pool at night

113. GRT at night 114. Cheers 115. We all dressed in Indian clothes

116. The UK group

117.Denmark won the sports cup

118. and seemed very happy!

119. Gary with Mikal from Denmark 120. The organising committee from MCRT. Well done lads!! 121. The Swedes. Next year it's their turn to host

122. The Danish skit...

123. ..."the lion ate my family"

124. Chairman Alan met RTI National President - Himanshu Gupta

125. The South African skit - the welly boot dance 126. The Dutch skit involved chairmen from ALL tables 127. EVERYONE!

128.  HAMMER TIME

129. oh

130. I think he's dancing

131 Raghu showing off to Lene 132.  How sweet..... 133.  One of the Doormen

134. The Red Fort at Agra

135. Inside the Red Fort, some of it was white!

136. A monkey

137. The Taj Mahal at sunset. How romantic! 138. The Taj Mahal 139. Carrying feed for their goats

140. Sunset opposite the Taj Mahal

141. Prakesh telling us all the history in detail!

142. At last light

143.  First thing the next morning, walking through the gateway to see the wonderful Taj Mahal 144. A beautiful view 145. On the roads in Rajasthan

146. An elephant ride up the hill

147. The elephant posing

148. Our Camels await!

149. Camel trip through the desert 150. Getting on and off was fun! 151. A Rajasthan man and his camel

     

152.The last night - a BBQ in Rajasthan

153. Images of India - a Barber's shop

154. Images of India - Traveling at 100kph (60mph)

     

 

Last edited

13/03/2010 18:08:35

     

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